15 Blooming ego

*whistle*

As the Whistle's sound echoed through the field, the second half finally began.

Even tho Nathan scored a goal at the end of the first half, the A team was still as laid back as in the first half while our team's expression couldn't of been worse, they all looked exhausted with only a few still having any hope left in their eyes.

While observing both teams I noticed Arnold nod at me with a serious expression on his face, it was the first time I've ever saw him taking anything seriously.

During the whole game he didn't take any of us seriously, even at the very beginning when they were given the instructions to be serious he didn't listen and kept lazing around on the field, but even with that I couldn't deny how amazing he was as a player, he always came at the right spot and was extremely annoying.

But the worst thing about him wasn't just his positioning, the worst was by far his sliding tackle which made use of his extremely long legs and long reach, that's what made him the top tier defender he is.

As soon as the sound of the whistle was heard Andre passed the ball back to Nathan who then started another offensive in hope to score an equalizer.

They all rushed to the offense without any hesitation, they managed to get through their midfield relatively easily but right when they made the final pass which reached Andre's feet, Arnold appeared in front of him and guarded him tightly.

"Pass the ball back to Nathan!" I yelled from the bench, but instead of listening to me he kept running towards the goal and tried to dribble past Arnold who easily stole the ball and openly mocked him in front of everyone.

I looked at the coach hoping that would wake him up and make him sub out Andre, I even yelled out the best possible instructions to Andre in hope that the coach notice that I know what the best course of action is.

Yet the minutes passed and no change were made to our lineup, after 5 minutes the A team managed to score yet another goal which widened the gap between our 2 teams and made our team's mental sink even deeper.

Even after a few more offenses in which Andre was always the one who lost the ball from Arnold, the coach still didn't listen to me and didn't make me play.

I knew that it was useless to try to talk to the coach so I just laid back and the bench and looked at Arnold, he then turned to me and we both knowingly looked at each other and nodded. It was time for him to finish our deal.

In the 64th minute Andre got yet another nice long ball from Nathan but this time Arnold didn't even give him time to trap it and immediately tackled him right into his calve.

He clearly wasn't aiming anywhere near the ball and hit Andre's leg with full force. The poor guy couldn't help but fall flat on the ground and started rolling on the ground while yelling out in pain.

As soon as he saw that, our coach immediately rushed on the pitch and called out for the medical team who took him out of the field to look at his injury, it was my first time seeing our coach so invested in the game.

Our coaches kept saying that we should stop the match since his nephew got injured, while also cursing out Arnold who ended up getting a red card but left the field with a small smile on his face.

Luckily Evans, the A team's coach refused to end the match and instead asked us to continue playing. The coach then had no choice but to let me join the game since no other striker was available, though it was very obvious that he hated the idea of letting me play. He still had hopes for his nephew being chosen.

Even if I knew the coaches intentions I didn't mind it and slowly entered the field while stretching a little and warming up then gave an unnoticeable thumbs up to Arnold to notify him that the money have been sent to him.

I already knew that this match had no signification for him and that he wouldn't mind getting a red card so I went up to him at half time and asked him to keep stealing the ball from Andre and keep targeting him then he would get his payment.

At first I just wanted him to show how bad Andre is in order for the coach to realize that the best choice would be to sub him out and let me play.

But after a few try we both realized that it wouldn't work so we went on with plan B which was to injure Andre enough for the coach to have to sub him out forcefully, Arnold even got a bonus payment for that so he didn't mind it.

I also didn't mind wasting some money on that since both of my parents were pretty well off.

What I didn't expect was for Arnold to manage to do that from the first time and for him to do it in such an aggressive way, I must admit that his reputation is well deserved.

It was my first time ever meeting such a player, a part of me couldn't help but be curious of what might've happened if it was me playing against Arnold.

"Nice to finally have you with us." Nathan high fived me, the sound of our hands hitting each other's was accompanied by the sound of a system notification which indicated that I finally succeeded in the quest.

My ego was already extremely high for someone who have never played football before, since I was able to look at the status of every 15 year old I met I assumed that they all had an ego either lower to mine or at my level.

During my time on the bench I had enough time for myself to think about it and ended up classifying the egos into ranks, my old one is what I would call a D rank ego since it allowed me to get multiple D rank quests.

Now that I've succeeded in this quest I'm sure that I finally reached what I would call a C rank ego, with that I should be able to make an even better use of the special weapons I have and get C rank quests.

Though for now I should only focus on the game, everything else is nothing but a distraction for me, I succeeded in getting into the game but now I need to make sure to win this game.

After Arnold's foul we all positioned ourselves for the free kick, I wasn't the one kicking it even though I was the striker because I knew my free kick stat wasn't that great. But if there's one thing I was confident in this it would be my jumping and heading abilities.

I looked at Nathan and asked. "Can you do it?" He simply nodded at me and then positioned himself to take the free kick.

He then slowly took a few steps back and centered the ball right on top of my head, they lacked one defender so the one guarding me was none other than Ricardo.

Ricardo jumped up with the same cheeky smile as usual, his jumping was indeed top tier as well, I already looked at his status with [Eyes of the Lord] and knew his jumping was at 56, which was considered very good for an U15 player and would even easily rival an U16 or U17 player.

His jumping and heading alone were better than mine but unfortunately for him my jumping was at 52 and I was close to 10 cms taller than him so I wasn't too worried and jumped up with all my strength then headed the ball as hard as I could.

Ricardo wasn't the star player for nothing though, while I was in the air he managed to nudge me a lot and almost pushed me off balance but the ball still flew straight up in the goal in front of everyone's shocked eyes.

I could see that even Evans the coach of the A team was surprised, they all finally got to witness the offensive duo everyone was so afraid of.

"Good job!! As expected of you." Nathan congratulated me for my goal.

There were only 25 minutes left to play but this goal already switched up the mood in the whole field. The A team would for sure stop lazing around after that, especially now that this have turned into a 11vs10 game.

The A team being serious did sound a bit frightening but our side was now more motivated than ever, me coming back and them losing their best defender made us gain back all our lost confidence.